Innovation

FORMPLANET Project

21/05/2019

    The FormPlanet project will create an Open Innovation TestBed (OITB) in Europe for the purpose of increasing the productivity of metal forming industries by developing new experimental methodologies and modelling approaches for predicting and optimizing the performance of materials and parts and for reducing the marketing time of new developments in this area.

     
    Start date:2019
     
    End date: 2022
     
     
    Participants and funding: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 814517 and executed by a European consortium formed by three research centres (Eurecat, coordinator of the project, plus Fraunhofer IWU and COMTES FHT AS), two universities (Lulea Tekniska Universitet and Università di Pisa), three companies (LETOMEC, Granta DESIGN and Applus+ Laboratories [LGAI Technological Center, SA]), eight industrial enterprises (Centro Ricerche FIAT, ArcelorMittal, Arania, Estamp, Arcelik, ALUDIUM, AP&T and Lamera) and UNE as the standardization body. 
     
     
    Objectives:
     
    Sheet metal forming generated over 440 million euros in Europe in 2016, and it is one of the most important manufacturing processes for obtaining high-performance metal parts for industrial production sectors such as transport, machinery, household appliances, cosmetics, energy and chemical products, among others.
     
    To have an impact on productivity, during the upcoming three years FormPlanet will develop new techniques for the characterization of materials and new modelling approaches to predict the formation of defects in an early stage of design and to predict the performance of parts. Moreover, non-destructive techniques will be developed to in-line assess part integrity in high quality products made with processing sensitive materials. Tests can be also used to control raw material properties, in-line or off-line, and adjust the process window to the actual sheet properties.

    In addition to new services for the characterization of materials, Applus+ Laboratories will offer innovative cross-functional services related to compliance with regulations and standards, related to data access and traceability regarding materials and products and related to quality certification, with the objective of providing expert support for industries in the sector.

    New methodologies to increase productivity

    The limitations of the processes currently used in metal forming cause productivity losses due to defects resulting from cracks, which cannot be predicted in the product design stage using traditional experimental or computational approaches.

    The project will test the potential of new experimental methodologies and modelling approaches using several industrial case studies, which will demonstrate the solutions to existing problems in the entire value chain of the metal parts manufacturing industry and will reduce the cost and marketing time in the development of new materials and products.

     

     
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